Broken Family, Broken Smile

Genre: Angst, Family
Characters: Wally West/Kid Flash (Main), The Team
Pairings: Spitfire (Main) Broken Supermartain

All Wally ever wanted was, to keep them together as teammates, friends, and family. To keep everyone happy and smiling, to keep his dreams a reality, but slowly one by one smiles fell and broke and his was no exception.

He tried so hard to keep smiling, to keep them together, but his smile slowly cracked and shattered, before it fell broken and forgotten.

The first time his smile fell was when Dick stopped laughing.

An eighteen year old Wally watched as a newly uniformed Nightwing tackled guards to the ground. He winced at the Batman like moves and growls as his best friend took out each person. He never said a word, he never laughed, and no English word was butchered.

It felt….wrong.

Speeding up next to Ro—no Nightwing, he stared at him, "dude what was that?"

"They were dealing drugs. I took them down."

"I realize, but what was with all the punches!? Where was all the crazy laughing and English destroying?!"

Nightwing's face didn't change, "I'm not a kid anymore Wally. I don't do those things. I needed to move on and get serious, something you can't seem to do."

"Not a kid? Dude! You're 16!"

"Drop it."

"Drop it?! How can I drop the fact that my best friend is going Batman on me?!"

Dick's eyes became dangerously narrow as he pointed a finger at Wally, "I am nothing like him."

"Oh ya? Well you're sure acting like him!"

"Am not!"

"Are too! You acted like him when you took out the bad guys. You acted like him when you were all gruff and 'I'm not a kid,' heck you're acting like him right now!

"I told you I am nothing, like him and if you say anything about it again I'll throw you off the nearest cliff."

Wally's eyes widened in fear and he stumbled back slightly, this wasn't the joking threat he usually got from Dick, this was serious and real. Every part of what was happening made Wally want to run away from the boy in front of him, he was scared, scared of his best friend.

"Dude are you even listening to yourself?! You sound just like him! You're even—"

Wally wasn't prepared for the punch that sent him flying off his feet, or the blood that spilled from his mouth.

"I said drop it," the younger boy growled as he walked away.

M'gann we're done here, Dick's voice entered his mind, echoing through it, the anger and the seriousness spilling from the words.

Wally looked up, his usual smiling fading as he rubbed his bloody mouth, tears seemed to beg to spill from his eyes. He was not going to cry. He was not going to cry, but his best friend had just hit him, and hit him hard.

Wally brushed away tears and blood as the Bio-Ship began to land, following Robin…no Nightwing, inside. Robin was gone; his best friend was gone, now there was only Nightwing. Serious, deadly, Nightwing and he hated it.

When the rest of the Team asked about his chipped tooth and bloody mouth he just smiled and brushed them away, stating a bad guy had gotten a lucky shot and they believed him.

No one saw that his smile didn't reach his eyes, or the fact that there was blood on Nightwing's fist, that or no one cared.

The second time was when Aqualad turned against them

Wally glared at Nightwing, "what do you mean he's gone?!"

"Just that, peanuts for brains!" The 17 year old yelled. "One second we were fine the next thing it's all Luke I am your father and he left!"

For a second Wally just sat there blinking, "dude…you just made a joke." His face split into a smile, his previous anger forgotten, as he hugged his best friend. "Do you know what this means? It means you're coming back!"

Nightwing groaned and pushed Wally away, "what is wrong with you?! Why can't you ever take things seriously?!"

"I huh…what?"

"Kaldur just left us for the evil side and your finding happiness in jokes! That is disgusting!"

Kid Flash blinked, once, twice, "Nightwing, I just wanted to lighten the mood, I mean ya it's devastating and horrible that Kaldur's gone, but life goes on….right?"

Once again Nightwing's eyes narrowed and he growled, "No it doesn't. Kaldur was our leader, he was our friend, and now he's gone. He knows things Wally, things that could bring us tumbling down."

"Kaldur wouldn't do th—"

"How do you know? How can you even understand something this serious?"

"Nightwing I—" Wally's eyes were filled with hurt as he tried to get over the fact that his best friend was yelling at him.

"No forget it, I was hoping you would have something worth listening to. I was wrong." And with that Nightwing left.

Wally's face fell as he stared at the ground, if only Dick knew what he was feeling.

He felt scared, because the younger hero was right, Kaldur had some much information that could hurt them, that could kill them.

He felt hurt over the betrayal and devastated by their calm leader's departure, but he didn't want to focus on those feelings, those feelings never led anywhere good.

Those kinds of feelings ended up turning people into people like Batman and he didn't want that. He didn't want to turn dark and foreboding, always dwelling on the past, when the future stood so brightly on the horizon.

Sighing he hunched over and walked towards the zeta-tubes, no one wanted him around, so why stay?

His smile would never again reach his eyes.

The third time was when M'gann and Superboy broke up.

Wally smiled and moved the floating bowl away from M'gann's face, smiling brightly at her, "and how is my lovely pearl today?" He asked.

"Not now Wally," M'gann said softly as she took the bowl back and began to stir. "Please just leave."

"Oh come on M'gann," Wally whined. "Can't you at least smile for me."

"I said not now, besides what would Artemis say if she saw you right now?"

"She'd kick my butt, but she already does that, so come on just a smile for your favorite speedster."

No answer.

"Oh come on M'gann, there's plenty of fish in the sea," Wally groaned getting annoyed, he just wanted everyone to be happy again. "You'll find someone else. Breaking up with Conner isn't the end of the—"

M'gann turned around quickly her eyes glowing a deathly green as she screamed out loud and telepathically, "I said get out!"

"M'gann I just want to—"

"Why do you always joke around with these kind of things?! Why can't you ever just be serious?!" And with that her eyes glowed brighter and Wally screamed as he was launched out of the room.

His once brilliant smile fell as he picked himself up and walked away.

The fourth time was when Rocket and Zatanna left.

A 20 year old, Wally coughed loudly the popcorn he was eating suddenly scrapping against the sides of his throat.

"What do you mean you two are leaving?!" He gasped, staring wide eyed at them. "You can't leave!"

"Wally, we're not dying were just—"

"Ya ya ya, I get it, but you can't just go! What about the Team?"

"Wally the Team will be fine," Rocket said as she packed her bag. "You have all the freshmen."

"Ya, but—"

"Wally don't worry."

"I know, but if you two leave, then whose going to help me?!"

Zatanna and Rocket blinked, "help you what?" they asked together.

Wally's eyes fell, "help me keep our family from falling apart."

He fell back his head in his hands.

"Oh Wally our family is just—"

"No it's not fine!" Wally screamed. "Ro—Nightwing hates me! Kaldur's evil! M'gann and Supey won't even make eye contact and now you two are leaving! Face it the only ones who are still fine are Artemis and I…and even we are arguing more."

Rocket and Zatanna looked at each other; they both knew that the things Wally had just said were the exact reason they were leaving and instantly the air became awkward.

"Wally it will all be fine, we'll keep in touch."

"But—"

"Bye Wally."

And like that they were gone and for one of the first times in his life Wally cried, he curled up in the now empty room and sobbed.

Everything was all wrong. No one was happy anymore, no one smiled, no one laughed, their family was broken, everything was wrong.

And that's how Artemis found him, in a tight little ball, sobbing to himself loudly about how their family was gone, and how nothing was right.

That's when Artemis decided that they needed to leave too, maybe not forever, but being with the Team was no longer healthy for her boyfriend.

His smile was broken.

The fifth time it broke

"Who are you kidding, it only gets more dangerous from here," Wally growled as he walked away, Artemis and Kaldur were gone diving into the dark sea below, he had no one.

The little part of his family that he had hung onto for dear life was gone now, ripped away from him just like everyone else.

"Bye Dick."

Dick had had enough, "that's it! What is up with you?! It's like you're a completely different person!"

"Oh really? Isn't this what you've always wanted? What everyone has wanted? For me to be serious About situations like this?"

"Wally…"

"I tried Dick," Wally growled. "I tried to keep everyone together, I tried to stay myself, I tried to make everyone smile, but it didn't work."

"What do you even mean?" Dick cried exasperated.

Wally froze midstep, "what do I mean? What do I mean?! I'm talking about our family! I'm talking about Kaldur, Conner, M'gann, Artemis, Rocket, Zatanna, you, me! I'm talking about the old Team! We're all broken!"

"We're not—"

"Please! You've become a mini-Batman, willing to sacrifice everything for a mission. M'gann and Conner won't make eye contact even though it's been a year! Rocket and Zatanna haven't spoken to me since I left the Team, heck you barely see them and Kaldur, who I thought was evil up until last week, has just killed my girlfriend! We are broken."

Dick blinked, once, twice, three times, his mouth kept opening and shutting, but no words came out. "Wally I'm—"

"All I wanted Dick, all I've ever wanted was for us to be happy, for everyone to have fun again, and I tried so hard to keep my dreams a reality. I tried so hard to stop time from changing us, but I failed. No one smiles anymore Dick, no one laughs, no one jokes, it's over."

Nightwing felt a huge lump form in his throat as he watched his best friend walk away. "Why didn't you ask me for help? I would've helped you! We could've stopped this from happening!"

Again Wally froze, "I did try Dick. I tried so hard, but it always ended with me getting hurt. I still have a scar on my lip from when you punched me and from when M'gann threw me across the room." Wally closed his eyes memories flashing across his mind.

" I tried to tell somebody, but no one would listen to me, no one cared, they just told me to be serious, so that's what I did. I became like you guys, I stopped smiling, I stopped joking, I stopped laughing. I just accepted the fact that reality had won and my dreams had lost, so I did what everyone else did. I left. We weren't a family anymore, so there was no use in staying somewhere that caused me so much pain."

And with that Dick watched Wally go, he didn't try to stop him or call out again, because inside he knew it was true.

Slowly over the course of five years they had broken each other, they'd broken their lives, they'd broken their family, they'd broken Wally and now that Dick thought about it, he couldn't think of the last time he saw Wally smile.

The last time he'd heard the older boy's laugh or corny jokes.

Wally's smile had been left shattered along the course of time and five years was such a long time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's some Wally angst XD

Anyways so ya a while back I was complaining to a friend over the fact that Wally never smiles or jokes anymore and here is the reason why.

I'm not very proud of this and parts of it were very forcefully written, but I'm proud enough XD

PLEASE REVIEW